1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gaming machine, that executes a card game, such as poker, etc., utilizing a video screen,
2. Related Art
In a conventional gaming machine, with which a plurality of players participate and play a game competing with each other, a card game such as a poker game is carried out utilizing a video screen thereof. With such type of gaming machine, a specific number of cards are dealt to each player to make the player's hand, and if a combination that is set as a winning combination is included in the player's hand and if this combination is a combination that is set as a stronger winning combination than those of other players, a predetermined benefit is provided to the player.
With such a gaming machine, since the win or loss is determined by comparison of the game results of the respective players, the key to whether a player wins or loses and gains a large amount of benefit lies in how much better a game result a player achieves in comparison to other players.
Thus in a case where a game is arranged so that only one player will be a winner and be provided with benefit, each player plays the game while constantly intending to achieve a better game result than other players.
Meanwhile, Laid-open Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-340646 proposes in a gaming machine, with which a plurality of players participate and play a game competing with each other, a game being carried out by players who may form a team and cooperate for the purpose of achieving good results.
This invention is arranged so that the team, to which the player who achieved the best game result belongs, becomes the winner, or points are given according to the rank of game results to a plurality of upper ranking players starting with the player who achieved the best result, and the team with the highest total points becomes the winner, and also, so that benefits can be provided to a plurality of players.
Even if, as in the above-described invention, arrangements are made so that a plurality of players will be winners who are provided with benefits, as long as how excellent a game result is achieved determines the win or loss and is the key to gaining a large amount of benefit, a player will still play the game while constantly intending to achieve a better game result than other players.
However, with a gaming machine, with which how excellent a game result is achieved determines the win or loss and is the key to gaining a large amount of benefit as described above, even if a player plays the game intending to achieve a better game result than the other players, since the win or loss will be affected by luck, the degree of expertise in the game, etc., there will be on one hand players who can achieve excellent game results and on the other hand many players who cannot achieve excellent results. Also, since a player, in the process of playing a game, will be playing the game while visually recognizing or predicting the position of his/her own game result with respect to those of other players, if the player comes to predict that he/she cannot achieve a game result that is better than the game results of other players, the player will, in many cases, lose the will to play the game.
Also, even in a card game where a plurality of players participate and play competing with each other as described above, only the player with the strongest hand can become a winner or, even in a case where a plurality of players can become winners, the winners will only be the plurality of upper ranking players starting with the player with the strongest hand. Thus in many cases, a player with only a weak hand who judges that there is no way of winning, may lose his courage to continue to play the game and quit without continuing the game to the end.
Furthermore, with such a card game as described above, the total amount of money bet by the respective players is paid to the winning player at the end of the game.
Thus in a case where there are many players who quit and do not continue to play a game until the end, the total amount of bet money to be gained by the winner decreases correspondingly, and even a player who has come to have a strong hand may thus deteriorate his motivation to continue to play the game.
Furthermore, it can be said that with a card game such as that described above, the various tactical interactions, which are developed among players from the point at which the hands are dealt to the point at which the contents of one's hands are revealed, make up a main point of interest of the game, and thus in case where there are many players who quit and do not continue to play the game to the end, a player may not be able to adequately enjoy the tactical interactions, which make up an interesting part of the game, and may lose interest in the game.
In view of the above points, it is preferable for a player that a gaming machine be one with which the opportunity to enjoy tactical interactions will not decrease and that the total amount of bet money gained by winning the game will not decrease due to players quitting the game.